A large chunk piece of plaster has fallen off from the inside of the Capitol’s dome as seen here during a tour of the building in St. Paul, Minn., on Tuesday, February 5, 2013.
(Pioneer Press: Ben Garvin)

Gov. Mark Dayton wants the state of Minnesota to borrow $750 million this year for public works projects ranging from renovation of the state Capitol and construction of college science laboratories to expansion of three outstate civic centers and the building of roads at the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant site in Arden Hills.

“It would create … 21,000 jobs all over the state,” Dayton said Monday, April 8, as he unveiled his bonding request to the Legislature.

In all, he would finance $812 million worth of projects, relying on the $750 million in state borrowing and the rest from other sources.

His plan’s largest request is $109 million for ongoing renovations of the deteriorating Capitol. Lawmakers approved $38 million to start the project last year, and Dayton said he would seek an additional $95 million next year to complete the work.

Besides the Capitol and Arden Hills projects, two other major east metro projects are on Dayton’s wish list:

— $32.5 million for a new Metro State University science laboratory and research building.

— $14 million to double the size of the Minnesota Children’s Museum in downtown St. Paul.

His request is an unusually large one. Lawmakers traditionally pass relatively modest public works funding bills — averaging about $140 million — in odd-numbered years, when they assemble a two-year state operating budget. Then they deliver a bigger bonding bill — $775 million on average — in even-numbered years.

Dayton said he is seeking a generous sum for construction this year because there is a huge backlog of projects that the Legislature has declined to fund in previous years. State agencies and local governments had requested $2.5 billion in state appropriations.

Moreover, he said, interest rates are low. The state is paying just more than 2 percent interest on the latest bonds it sold.

Rep. Alice Hausman, DFL-St. Paul, chairwoman of the House Capital Investment Committee, has said she favors an even larger bill — perhaps about $800 million. She is scheduled to release her bill Tuesday.

“It’s the largest bonding bill in a nonbonding year in over a decade,” Hann said.

The bill is one of the rare instances in which the Democratic majorities need Republican votes. It takes a three-fifths majority to authorize state borrowing, so at least two GOP votes would be required in the Senate and eight in the House to pass a bonding bill.

Regarding the Capitol, Spencer Cronk, commissioner of administration, said “the time to act is now” because the 108-year-old building is crumbling so rapidly that if it isn’t fixed soon, it will be surrounded by scaffolding for the next 50 years just to keep it standing.

State colleges and universities would be big winners under the governor’s proposal. It would pump $189 million into classrooms, labs, research facilities and repairs on existing facilities.

The largest single higher education project would be an $85 million renovation of the Tate Physics Laboratory on the University of Minnesota’s Minneapolis campus.

Ramsey County would get state help to redevelop the Arden Hills ammunition plant site from a $25 million fund that Dayton proposed for local roads. Once proposed as the location for the new Minnesota Vikings stadium, the polluted property is the state’s largest Superfund site.

Dayton said the property was “fabulous, prime development real estate” and upgrading it “could be as economically beneficial as the stadium.”

Stressing the need to “invest in downtowns,” he proposed spending $59.6 million to expand civic centers in Rochester, Mankato and St. Cloud.

Besides the $14 million for the Children’s Museum, Dayton requested $20 million to reconstruct the Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis and $7 million to renovate the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.

He also called for:

— $54 million for a new Minneapolis Veterans Home nursing building.

— $51 million to upgrade the St. Peter state security hospital.

— $50 million for corrections facilities, including $5 million for a perimeter security fence at the Shakopee women’s prison.

— $28 million to improve sewer and water systems across the state.

— $20 million to repair or replace 82 deteriorating local bridges.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Bill Salisbury can be reached at 651-228-5538.

Bill Salisbury has been a newspaper reporter since 1971. He started covering the Minnesota Capitol for the Rochester Post-Bulletin in 1975, joined the Pioneer Press as a general assignment reporter in 1977 and was assigned to the Capitol bureau in 1978. He was the paper's Washington correspondent from 1994 through 1999, when he returned to the Capitol bureau. Although he retired in January 2015, he continues to work at the Capitol part time.

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